Do you Black Friday?!

As Canadians, we are familiar with Boxing Day, a crazy-busy shopping day - the day after Christmas -  when stores offer sales too good to resist.  In the States,
its equivalent, Black Friday, is practically a holy day.  According to Wikipedia, Black Friday has been the busiest shopping day since 2005.  

What you need to understand is that Thanksgiving is bigger in the United States than Christmas.  Black Friday is part of that Thanksgiving excitement.  Thanksgiving in the U.S. is always on the fourth Thursday of November, this year:  November 22.

While researching Black Friday sales, we discovered most large department stores list steps to follow if you want your shopping experience to be a good one.  Mostly, their advice deals with safety.  You do not want to get trampled or worse (remember the Wal-Mart nightmare a few years ago?).  Some suggested safe shopping practices:

     - know where the item you wish to buy is located in the store

     - plan a designated meeting place for you and your family

     - keep your wallet close to your chest to prevent having it stolen

     - make sure your phone is fully charged and set to vibrate, as noise levels may be high

     - avoid being confrontational

So in keeping with tradition here in the U.S., we will venture out on Friday, armed with elbow and knee pads, matching t-shirts and whistles, and hope to come out with all our parts intact!  Actually, we are really hoping to get that DVD player we've been eying at Big Lots!